The eccentric doctor never makes a misdiagnosis!

This is a wide, thick metal door, which is locked.

Furthermore, the bolts used are the same type as those in the vault... Even a strong man couldn't break down the door directly, let alone Fran, who has lost his kidneys.

The main gate does not use a combination lock, but a retro and classic key lock.

This is the first riddle set by Themis.

Fran smiled faintly, his index fingertip gently tracing the stitched-up wound on his abdomen, feeling the intense pain spreading from the inside out.

"Although it's called solving a puzzle, 'Themis's' hints are quite obvious. Perhaps she's worried that I won't be able to open the door and will be trapped and die in the room? In that respect alone, she's not a bad person..."

In fact, after Themis finished her opening remarks, she already had a fairly accurate guess.

"Losing something and gaining something else takes courage. And the phrase 'the path to redemption lies within it'... such an obvious implication."

"After saying all that, what I really want to say is that 'the key is inside me.' It's much simpler than a riddle, and it certainly has a Jigsaw style."

This cruel test was only at an entry-level difficulty for her, and it was perfectly suited to her major.

Fran carries a small first-aid kit with a full range of cutting tools. He can use the ability [Dust Removal] to isolate micro-dust infection and ensure the light source... and this guy doesn't care at all about cutting open his own body.

She even hummed a tuneless melody while doing it, giving off a rather amusing vibe...5《√

The main danger element of the Jigsaw puzzle is "time," as the imminent threat of death gradually approaches over time. The solution usually involves "physical pain."

The designers of the trials would use this pain and numerous linguistic hints to bring the condemned to a state of spiritual transcendence like that of an ascetic... or to lead them to death.

But Fran does not feel pain from dismantling his body, nor does he repent to others.

Her values ​​are complete and solid, and she never needs self-pity or spiritual cleansing.

……

After rummaging around where the kidneys should have been, Fran found a blood-stained rubber bag in his hand, inside which was a brass key.

Tossing the key aside, she methodically re-stitched the wound. Bloody, precise, elegant—her slender fingers moved the needle and thread like a sophisticated instrument indifferent to pain.

"She even put a plastic bag over the key to reduce the risk of infection. She's really meticulous... There are still many good people in the world."

Now she believes that the "civilization" where this secret room is located has a next-generation medical system... The process of retrieving the key is far too easy to cause infection.

Without proper safeguards, even if one perfectly passes the trial, they may still die from subsequent serious illnesses.

……

After finishing the stitching, Fran picked up the key, went to the door, and inserted it into the lock.

With the teeth engaged, the metal door opened with little resistance. This design seems to take into account that the user is somewhat weak at this time and has difficulty pushing the door open.

Behind the door was a more spacious new room, also undecorated, its view almost entirely filled with the despairing dark gray of concrete.

...Of course, the room wasn't empty. On the contrary, it was filled to the brim with more than a dozen bookshelves.

Fran glanced at it briefly; the bookshelf was full of newspapers, magazines, and notes, thick stacks of them.

One of the bookshelves had tipped over for some unknown reason, scattering countless paper documents on the ground.

Fran walked towards the bookshelf, her eyes lighting up slightly. She noticed a cassette tape lying on a pile of scattered books. It was quite eye-catching, like a cherry on a cake, clearly placed there intentionally.

She picked up the cassette tape and put it into the player, and the woman's voice sounded again.

"Clearly, you already know where 'redemption' lies, and you've shown the courage to seek it. Perhaps you're curious about my identity, or perhaps you're confused about the reasons behind this event..."

"Therefore, I have prepared three keys called 'The Answer' for you in this room. It is in 'The Insider's Words', 'The Betrayal of a Lover', and 'The End of a Genius'. Once you collect all the keys, you will receive the second half of the diary."

Fran listened with great interest, even playing the tape again to make sure he didn't miss any key words.

"It seems this Lady Themis is quite fond of riddles; it's a unique interest. But her riddles aren't too difficult; each one is quite specific... after all, the room isn't that big. They shouldn't be hard to find."

She spent three minutes carefully observing the layout of the entire room before returning to the overturned bookshelf.

"This bookshelf is tilted at an abnormal angle after it fell over; it looks like it was pressing down on something..."

Fran struggled to move the pile of magazines and newspapers aside, and in the process, she caught a pungent, musty smell, accompanied by the acrid odor of aldehyde preservatives.

As expected, the bookshelf was pressing down on a corpse, and it was a woman's. The body was dry and decaying, having undergone simple embalming.

Her face was ashen and pale, her expression frozen in the final moments before her death... hysterical and with tears streaming down her face. Her mouth was wide open as if screaming silently, to the point that her lips were torn.

"This must be Julie Jane... I guess she's the 'insider.' So the first key should be in her mouth."

Fran inserted his finger into the corpse's mouth and carefully removed a key. The key's location was approximately in the middle of the throat.

"The remaining two mysteries, 'the betrayal of a lover' and 'my end,' are a bit too abstract... Fortunately, there is a lot of information, and we should be able to find clues to connect them."

She picked up a roll of newspaper and began to read it.

They're all completely unrelated events, nothing worth paying attention to. There's just too much information here; it's impossible to read it all, and Fran doesn't have that much time...

Without kidneys, the body loses most of its metabolic functions, and uremia and multiple organ failure will follow... However, if you are lucky enough that no acute symptoms occur, it will be a long process.

It could take a few hours, or it could take half a day.

No one knows when the body will reach its breaking point. Maybe a day, maybe an hour... maybe just after the next heartbeat.

She glanced at the newspaper she had just been reading; it was a July evening paper. This was probably the only valuable information.

"That's what I mean... I overthought it. The fact that the first key appeared on the corpse misled me to some extent."

Fran rubbed his fingertips and began to select newspapers purposefully.

"Julie was confirmed dead on September 13th. This means that Themis had already been taking action for some time by then. Therefore, the 'betrayal by her lover' must have occurred before this."

She was quick; in about five minutes, she found the document she wanted from more than a dozen bookshelves. It was an evening paper from August 25th, containing a missing person notice. The person they were looking for was Julie Jane.

More importantly, the notice stated that anyone with information should contact "John Howard," and even provided contact information and address.

"This newspaper is heavier, and several pages are stuck together..." Fran tore open the newspaper and found that a section in the middle had been cut out and pasted together. Eight

She tore open the paper cover and found a second key.

This discovery confirmed her idea; the key was "time." The key could be obtained by finding relevant information about the periods when these two events occurred, based on Themis's hints.

John's advertisement seeking Julie suggests he no longer cares about his fiancée's feelings; at that point, he had most likely already fallen out with her. This could be described as "a lover's betrayal."

Fran's eyes crinkled, and a faint blush rose to her pale cheeks. She seemed completely at ease, enjoying this dangerous process that could kill her at any moment... and finding pleasure in it.

So, what exactly was "my end" like?

Chapter Five: The Mystery Ends

The materials on the bookshelf are arranged chronologically, so once the approximate time of the event is determined, the search area can be quickly narrowed down. *Hiss*

The puzzle designers were even more lenient.

Themis had already mentioned in the materials provided in the first room that the public trial for Dr. Fran would be held on October 30.

For a renowned top doctor, being publicly tried in front of everyone, having all his crimes dissected one by one, and having all his privacy exposed... it truly deserves to be called "the end of the road."

But this is contingent on her actions being correctly defined as a procedural "crime," and ultimately, being punished and sentenced.

Otherwise, all of this would be meaningless.

Fran quickly found the evening paper from October 30th, and the front page featured this highly anticipated trial.

But this newspaper had no hidden compartment, so there was obviously no key hidden there. And the headline on the front page was, "The innocent are innocent; she gave us all an impeccable answer!"

The testimonies provided by dozens of patients claiming to have participated in Dr. Fran's horrific experiments contain numerous inconsistencies in terms of timeline and clues, and are largely exaggerated and speculative, making it difficult to form a complete and reliable chain of evidence.

Furthermore, Dr. Fran's legal team presented the corresponding 'drug clinical trial cooperation agreement,' demonstrating that the entire process was legal and devoid of any unethical elements!

"It seems this 'me' is quite knowledgeable about the law and also has some crisis management skills. Even handling such a troublesome matter so well, truly worthy of being called 'me'..."

Fran stroked his chin and nodded slightly, seemingly approving of the approach, and even inexplicably proud of it.

"But that means the 'my end' event should have occurred at a later date. The scope of the investigation will be much broader."

She began her investigation by checking each case sequentially, starting from October 30th. If there is a second trial, it should be three or four months from now.

But given my solid legal expertise, even with a second trial, I estimate I won't lose.

Fran pursed his lips and frowned slightly.

Tsk, can't I just be a little less law-abiding and obediently go work on the sewing machine? I'm just causing trouble...

She first found a report of the second trial in the newspaper three months later, which undoubtedly upheld the original verdict.

"It" is virtually flawless in terms of resources and procedures, and has no reason to lose the case.

It took Fran a lot of time and effort to find the newspaper. This newspaper was a daily publication, released every day.

This led her to read through about ninety volumes before finally finding the issue about the second trial... but she still couldn't find the key.

She could clearly feel her attention gradually fading and the pain becoming increasingly intense.

Without kidneys, the concentration of various metabolic waste products in her blood will continue to rise, eventually leading to irreversible malignant organ failure.

To survive, Fran must hurry and complete the test so he can undergo dialysis. Then he needs to put his kidney back in…

Fran was not anxious; on the contrary, he appeared unusually calm.

She simply quickened her pace as she continued flipping through the newspaper from the second trial issue. And she read it more and more briefly, often just glancing at the front page before moving on to the next issue.

She had already guessed the approximate timeframe for this event.

Even if we can't pinpoint the exact location, it doesn't matter. The current situation can be solved by exhaustive search; we can just follow the timeline forward.

"Oh, here you are... I've found you."

Finally, Fran got the issue she wanted. She tore it open and, quite pleased, took the last key from the hollowed-out compartment in the middle.

That was a newspaper from January 20th of the following year. The front-page headline read, "Dr. Fran Hesser Missing! Special Task Force Established Within 24 Hours of Confirmation of Missing Person; Police Investigating!"

Being kidnapped and brought into this secret room is truly the "end of the road"!

As Fran inserted the three keys he found into the keyhole of the second room's door, the latch loosened.

It seems the approach is correct. After obtaining the first key from Julie's body, the remaining two can be found by simply consulting the paper documents along the timeline.

The owner of this secret room, who seems to enjoy hiding things in books, might just be a fan of "The Shawshank Redemption"...

-

Fran slowly walked into the third room, which was as dark and gloomy as ever, but it was still much better than a real prison.

"The layout was simple, but the cleaning was done very well."

She bent down, stretched out her index finger and rubbed it against the ground; there was no dust on her fingertip. Instead, there was a faint smell of chlorine disinfectant.

"Is it 'Themis's' occupational hazard as a doctor? Or is it simply her obsessive-compulsive disorder about cleanliness...?"

Fran looked up and saw a wooden table with three torn pieces of paper weighed down by a small piece of paper. It must have been the bottom half of the first diary.

She reached out and took it out, then looked at it.

[May 25th. A private investigator approached me, saying he could offer some assistance. He produced photos of John and Julie's tryst and then quoted a price. I doubled it and offered him the job. He agreed.]

June 1st. How exactly did Julie end up in my fiancé's bed? When did John start eyeing the family fortune? And how did he tamper with my father's brakes?

I didn't want to know, but the detective was very dedicated; he found a lot of unsavory evidence... I forced myself to look at the evidence every day, and I also had nightmares almost every night. I told him I was sick, and the wedding was postponed to September.

[August 1st. I've already made all the preparations and can't wait to personally take everything back from them.]

"Not bad. The closer I am to my mental limit, the calmer I become. I'm not just a love-struck fool... Cruelty is more appealing than stupidity."

Fran already knew the general outline of the incident, and as for the details... he had almost filled in the blanks in his mind.

It's nothing more than a revenge story, and strictly speaking, it's quite cliché.

In any case, her intense curiosity was satisfied. She squinted her eyes and let out a satisfied sigh.

"Let's see how the puzzle in this third room goes."

As soon as she entered, she noticed a plastic-looking mechanical object hanging on the side wall. It had a bright red cross printed on its casing and appeared to be a medical device.

Fran approached the device, opened the plastic casing to inspect it, and found a new cassette tape inside.

After it was played, the slightly distorted female voice sounded again.

“Dr. Fran, you probably already have a rough understanding of the whole incident. And the fate of those two people… you should have guessed as well. I didn’t take away their hope of life; they simply chose death in their madness.”

"Now, I want to ask you... if I were to place your life and the lives of others on opposite ends of a scale, how would you balance it, how would you choose? Would you rather die a noble death or live a vile life?"

"The device in front of you is a blood collection device. Across the room, there is a patient who has lost a lot of blood. I have pre-screened you; your blood types are the same and there is no rejection. You only need simple treatment to receive a transfusion."

"There is a container inside the device. Once this container has accumulated 800ml of liquid, the door will open."